Zwolle, the capital of the province of Overijssel, was established in the 9th century. In 1230 Zwolle was granted a charter. However, this city’s hey-day, both in an ecclesiastical and a cultural sense, was at the beginning of the 15th century. A large number of monumental buildings date from this ‘golden age’ in Zwolle’s history.

In these long-gone days Zwolle was a busy port of transship for sandstone, grain and fish from the Baltic Sea and the former Zuiderzee (now IJsselmeer). As a result, the city expanded substantially and became one of the main free imperial Hanseatic towns.

Nowadays Zwolle is called the gate to the north because of the important railway- and highway-connections with Groningen and Leeuwarden.